Eyes Left

I'm only Chairman of the Board. I had no
idea what my employees were up to.

These are a few of my favorite
excuses.

The first excuse has a kind of folksy
plausibility and innocence that would allow one to accept it from
time to time. The second is employable, with apologies to the late
Flip Wilson, when dealing with those of a religious or
superstitious bent.

The last I find admirable only for its
audacity. The sheer gall it takes to stand up before Congress, no
less, and roll out this utterly transparent chestnut takes the
courage of a cat burglar.

See No Evil, Hear No

Evil, Speak No…

Half a dozen or more of Enron's past and
present board members in their $1,500 suits recently stood with
hands raised, prepared to deny any knowledge of anything ever done
at Enron. What's wrong with this picture? It's the hands! Some of
these guys should have had their hands over their eyes, others over
their ears and the remainder over their mouths.

Of course, the board members had no idea
what the guys on the phones hustling energy commodities were doing.
They dwell in a corporate structure that separates and insulates
the boys at the top (you'll notice no females in blue or red power
suits in the clueless Enron lineup) from all the nastiness it takes
to make huge profits while producing nothing.

Is there anyone not familiar with the
phrase, "I don't care how you do it, just do it?" Here in this part
of New Jersey, we undoubtedly have more corporate types per square
yard than anywhere in the world. So most of us understand that
while board members don't know what the foot soldiers are
doing; they by God know how they're doing and that they
had better be doing better than last year, a lot better. Or there
are going to be a lot of new soldiers and sergeants and line
officers real quick.

Radio Days

Years ago I worked for a sales manager in
the radio business who was never satisfied. If you got 110 percent
of someone's advertising budget, he wanted to know why the guy
didn't take a second mortgage on his house to buy more
ads.

One day I came in with a big order and a
check from a guy who was selling fake pep pills. I told my boss we
shouldn't take the business. It almost broke his heart but he
agreed. So did the station owners and the board. My boss called the
pill pusher and told him never to darken our door again. Even this
great white shark of a predatory businessman knew where to draw the
line.

That's what management is supposed to do.
Set the tone. If a company's work force is full of cutthroats and
thieves, then chances are the management and board are going to be
a lot more like Blackbeard the pirate than Mother
Teresa.

What Is Leadership?

Leadership is a lot more than setting
policy. Leadership dictates the style, the attitude and the
parameters of any organization. A captain on a sailing ship has to
make a judgment on how much sail his ship should carry. More sail,
more speed - but he might capsize the ship. The captain or the
board has to decide how far a company should go.

Apparently the boys on the board at Enron
figured they could go all the way. That's because they had friends
in high places and because the regulatory agencies had been
emasculated by a business-"friendly" administration.

So now the time has come to pay the piper.
High-level responsible persons are, as usual, prepared to throw a
few hirelings overboard in an effort to placate the public.This
time, I submit that simply won't do.

Make The Penalty

Fit The Crime

Corporate buccaneering will continue on an
ever-increasing scale unless penalties are meted out that fit the
crimes.

The foundation of our legal system is
supposed to be the certainty of just and fitting punishment for
those who are responsible for the commission of crimes.

We're not talking crimes of passion here.
The people who planned and executed these huge dangerous thefts did
so with full knowledge and forethought. If the threat of real
punishment had been factored into those calculations, rational
business people would have rejected them out of hand.

Lack of serious law enforcement on this
level invites crime. And if the sight of corporate bigwigs behind
bars is too difficult to contemplate, might not we follow the Roman
example?

Disgraced Roman leaders were punished by a
creative kind of exile. They were denied food, shelter and water
within 100 miles of Rome. If they could walk that distance unaided,
they might live.

How about denying Ken Lay and the rest of
the Enron crew air conditioning for life? We have the
technology.

And if the parka fits…

(Editor's Note: The writer, a
resident of Wharton and a former Democratic state Assembly
candidate, owns an advertising and public relations firm. He is a
former acting mayor and Planning Board president. His column
normally appears here the first and third week of the month,
alternating with one written by former Republican state Senator and
Casino Control Commissioner Leanna Brown. Mr. Stafford's e-mail
address is thestafford@go.com.)

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